a nyt book reviewer makes a critical error in a review, which devastates the novel's author but leads to a pretty awesome exchange between one of the novel's characters and an irl nyt staffer.

i love this part:

But perhaps even more interesting than all of this: How many ghost
relationships do you have? I am drawn to them and like to ask people
about theirs. Chat rooms? What are they, and what do they mean? Is it
the Internet or something else? Subway eyes. People you’ve only met
through email, or Facebook or Twitter? Authors you’ve read whom you may
very well love, and I mean actually love, even though they’re dead?
People who’ve commented on something you’ve done having never seen your
face? People from afar who’ve changed your life? A customer service rep
who somehow made your day, a random H.R. person who ruined your year?
Even that lady on the On Star commercials — have you ever thought about her?